Move your hosting to AIT with no downtime

Move your hosting to AIT with no downtime

Last updated on March 17, 2014

Switching to a new host can be a complicated process, and sometimes technical issues can get in the way. Here is our quick, easy to follow guide to migrate your website to AIT with no downtime. Just remember "SAFE MOVE!"

S - Sign up with AIT. Select the plan that you want to start with from our comprehensive list of plans. Make sure to NOT cancel with your old hosting provider. If you're in a contract, the old host could cause your services to halt if they are aware that you're leaving and are still under contract terms.

A - Archive (backup) your mail on your old web hosting company. You can normally do this by some sort of export to a PST or CSV file. Ensure you have your mail backed up before proceeding.

F - FTP to your old host, and download all your files. Once you're done, connecting to the new host's FTP and uploading all your files. AIT does have FREE migration assistance for websites less than 5GB of disk space.

E - Create your email accounts on the AIT account using the SMT interface and extract your email as necessary.

M - If you have any databases on the old web hosting company, you'll want to move them (back them up) and upload the backup files to your AIT account. You can do this several ways depending upon what type of database you have. For example, if you're using MySQL, you can export your data using phpMyAdmin on your old host, then import your data through the phpMyAdmin installation in your SMT.

O - Look at your overall site. This includes email, website files, databases, etc. If you lost it all today, what would you have backed up? If you don't have a backup on your PC, or stored remotely, then do so. This will save you in the long run. AIT can always assist putting data back on your website if you have your original data. If you do not have your data, it is impossible for AIT to help.

V - View your website in a browser by IP address to ensure all files are there, and the website 'generally' functions. If you're not sure if it's functioning or not, just ask our 24x7x365 helpdesk. You can contact us here.

E - This is the END! Once you've ensured that the website is operational, you can now change your DNS servers to point to AIT's. You can follow the DNS change instructions here. Once your DNS changes have been made, you will need to wait 48 hours (two days) before your site will load from the new host. During this 48 hour period, your DNS is propagating world wide and your site will be randomly loading from either the old host or the new host. Once the two days is complete, your site will only be loading from the new host. Once you've confirmed that your new site is officially hosted on AIT's servers, you can cancel your old hosting account. In addition to that, you can also get your domain name transferred to AIT's registrar too. More on that process is here.